One of the really fun things that I get to do as a member of
the local school board is attend graduation exercises every year. Not only do I
get to attend but I get one of the best seats in the house. Right up on the
stage facing the graduates and their parents. It’s a phenomenal seat not
because I get to be up where everyone can see me, there is usually a fight
between several of us for the back row, but I get to look at the kids as they
march in and see the glowing faces of their parents out in the stands.
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| Best Friends- Graduation1994 |
As “Pomp & Circumstance” plays and the graduates come in
there is a tangible feeling of hope, excitement , and even fear in the air.
This is the culmination of something important to these students and their
parents and a defined coming of age moment.
While watching the crowd it is impossible not to see the connection
that graduation has to the past and the future. It is one of those times
when you reflect upon the time of your own budding adulthood and the
possibilities that were before you. Then
the mind immediately looks forward to the short years before your own kids will be crossing that stage.
The cycles of life continue on. I am now in the space of
time where my parents reside in my memory. They never get any older than they
were when I was graduating senior and I think that will be the case with my
kids as well. What is the picture of me that they will keep in their minds eye?
There were goals that glimmered on the horizon when I was 18
that were never realized. But as I look back on the years since that time I don’t
regret any of it. Some of it would have been easier if I had better choices but
in all the happiness and trial of everyday life I was learning important truths
and cleansing some major character defects out of myself.
Maybe every few years we should all go to a graduation and
listen to the speakers as they talk about hope for the future. There is hope as
we all move through the stages of our lives and much to look forward to. Not
only that, each of us has done things that we can be proud of and it is nice
once in a while to soak in the love that such events produce.
Congratulations to all the graduates of the world, past,
present and future.
Cheers,
Brenda
I've only just realized that these things you were posting to FB were actually a blog that YOU were writing! How did I miss this? I can only claim too little sleep and the loss of gray matter as my excuses at the moment. I'm so glad I figured it out, now I can keep up with you in a whole new way. I love reading your writing, by the way. Did I ever tell you that? Carry on with the great subject matter-it always hits home with me. Love you!
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